Rising Fire by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 2020-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 28

Later, Johnny became aware of the swaying, jolting motion of the wagon, but he didn’t fully regain consciousness until he was lying in the dirt of an alley behind the rooming house in Little Italy where he lived. He was sprawled on his belly and had grit and a horrible taste in his mouth. He tried to lift his head so he could spit, but when he did that, his head seemed to explode, flying apart in a million pieces. He groaned as he let it slump to the ground again.

The pain inside his skull gradually receded. As it did, he realized how much he hurt all over. At first his brain was too stunned to remember what had happened, but slowly it came back to him. Pete and Migliazzi . . . the money he owed, not to George Anselmo as he had thought but to Nick Scaramello instead . . . the brutal beating Pete had given him just down the block from Felicia’s house . . .

Felicia! The thought of her made Johnny lift his head again, and this time he pushed aside the resulting pain. Would Scaramello go after her, try to muscle the ten grand out of her? Johnny didn’t think so, but who could be certain what that animal was capable of?

He struggled to his hands and knees. He had to get to her, warn her. But if he showed up looking like this, covered with blood and bruises from a beating, she would be horrified. She would realize he was just a cheap crook and wouldn’t have anything else to do with him. He had to get cleaned up first, before he went to see her. He’d probably still look pretty bad, but not as bad as he must now.

When he got to his feet, he couldn’t stop the low cry of pain that came from his lips. With every step as he stumbled out of the alley and around to the front of the building, he seemed to feel Pete’s fists hammering into him again. A twinge in his side every time he took a breath made him think he probably had a cracked rib.

As long as it was just cracked and not fractured and stabbing into his lung, he could live with it, he told himself.

Scaramello wasn’t likely to hurt Felicia. She was his best bet when it came to getting that money. Johnny could get it out of her. Of course he could. He had done the same thing with other women, plenty of times, although usually not for such a large sum.

In fact, the last time he had tried to get ten grand out of a woman had been in Venice, with Denise Jensen. That hadn’t worked out. It had almost been his downfall, permanently.

But not this time, he vowed as he started struggling up the steps to the front door of the brownstone. Felicia would give him what he needed.

“Well, what in the world has happened to you? Not that you don’t deserve it, whatever it was.

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